House budget leaders enacted their final version of the budget this week and the budget will now move into the conference committee.
House cuts in Justice and Public Safety Agencies are generally ranging from 2.5% to 3.5%. The Department of Juvenile Justice is an exception and was cut by 1.5% on the House side. Total cuts within agencies have been achieved by a combination of management reserves, vacant positions, operating and equipment reductions, cuts of pass through programs and targeted cuts.
Items that are the same in both the Senate and the House are usually viewed as fully resolved. This year, though, legislators have been concerned about nearly $500 million dollars in medicaid funding that requires legislation to be passed at the federal level. If that bill is not passed, legislative leaders warn that much of the budget could again be in contention. Since at least 20 states are counting on those funds, we remain optimistic that the funds will be available.
The House and the Senate have taken a different approach to imposing painful budget cuts. The House has followed the Governor's lead and has relied more heavily on flexible management reserves to achieve their cuts. Agencies were able to convince House budget writers that they want to make the decisions over these cuts as the year goes along. The great bulk of these management reserve cuts will be taken in the form of lapsed salary as it becomes available.
POSITIONS, OPERATING, EQUPMENT AND PASS THROUGH CUTS
Positions - While the position amounts are not identical in the House and Senate budgets, they are similar and should be fairly easy to resolve. The big issue with vacant positions is, again, the agencies' desire to have managment flexibility concerning where to actually eliminate vacant positions.
In the Department of Correction, the House joined the Senate in eliminating or consolidating $1 million in the following positions: 11 Division of Prison administrative positions, 4 in-prison out-patient treatment positions, and 2 Division of Community Corrections positions.
The Senate and House both took a $5.75 million cut to the private assigned counsel fund. These are not vacant positions, however, and without additional funds, IDS is nearly certain to have unpaid bills at the end of the 2010-2011 fiscal year. The individual attorney appointment fee was raised from $50 to $60 in the Senate, but not in the House.
Operating and Equipment Reductions - Operating budgets have been reduced in all agencies. The House and Senate made identical equipment reductions. They are: Justice ($400,000); Correction ($300,000: House same): Crime Control - ($400,000) ; and AOC ($2.6 mil House - $2.76mil );
Programs Funded as Pass Throughs all across state government were reduced by an additional 5% on top of last year's reductions. In the Justice and Public Safety area, many of these are excellent community-based programs that already took up to 25% in cuts last year. Total cuts for the year will now range from 10% - 30% when the new cuts are added. Several of the programs were completely eliminated in the Governor's budget. Unfortunately, some state agencies view pass-through programs as more expendable even if they provide excellent services.
Justice and Public Safety programs with funding cuts that the same in the House and Senate include:
Dispute Settlement Centers - 5%
NC Bar - Civil Justice Funds - -5%
Center for Death Penalty Litigation - - 5%
Financial Protection Law Center - - 5%
Harriot's House - 5%
NC Prisoner Legal Services - 5%
Project Challenge - 5%;
Summit House - 5%
Women at Risk - 5%
NC VAN, also a pass through, did not receive a 5% cut
Funding levels that will be resolved in conference include:
NC Leaf (Senate - 5%; House - 33%)
Our Children's Place (Senate 5% - House - Eliminated); 2009- 25%
DA's Association - cut by $100,000 in the Senate and fully funded in the House.
FEES - $13 million in fees were added in the Senate budget. These fees were NOT included in the House budget. While fees are certainly a necessary part of the Court system, we have concerns about the extent to which a wide variety of fees have been raised on probationers. Continued increase in fees - such as the supervision fee, the attorney appointment fee and the community service fee - could serve to decrease a probationer's ability to function successfully in the community.
TARGETED CUTS: WHAT'S RESOLVED AND WHAT'S NOT
Items that are the same in both the Senate and the House are usually viewed as fully resolved. This year, though, legislators have been concerned about a $500 million dollar medicaid amount that requires legislation to be passed at the federal level. If that bill is not passed, much of the budget could again be in contention. Since at least 20 states are counting on those funds, legislative leaders remain optimistic that they will be available.
COMMUNITY-BASED PROGRAMS
Cross Area Service Fund - This fund provides treatment dollars for programs that provide services across county lines. It appears to be intact in the Senate budget.
Drug Treatment Court - RESOLVED - No changes have been made to the Drug Treatment Courts and none are anticipated unless reductions are made as part of the management flexibility reduction described above.
Criminal Justice Partnership Program - RESOLVED - $1.1 million was taken from the CJPP discretionary fund. These funds were added back into the budget at the subcommittee level and then voted out again. This cut is a one time cut and does not affect the recurrning funds distributed to the counties.
Re-Entry - The House has included an excellent provision which will allow Corrections to improve Re-Entry efforts. The Department will conduct a pilot program contracting for 2 year community-based residential servcies for minimum custody level offenders to enhance their readiness for release.
Sentencing Services - Sentencing Services had an excellent continuation review and we are pleased that it has been restored in both the Senate and the House budgets. The Senate budget fully restores the program and the House restores it with a 5% cut. A 5% cut would bring the total cut for 2010-2011 to 20%. This program helps the state save money by using evidence-based practices to provide the Court with appropriate community placements for individuals facing prison sentences. This program also provides case management prior to sentencing.
Womens' Programs - RESOLVED - Important women's programs were eliminated in the Governor's budget and they have been restored in the Senate Budget. They are Women at Risk, Summit House, Harriet's House and Our Children's Place. They will each receive a 5% cut in both the Senate and the House budgets. Since all of these programs were cut 25% last year, they now face a total of a very deep 30% cut.
JUSTICE
Medicaid Fraud Criminal Investigation Team - RESOLVED - There have been instances of medicaid fraud and the Governor and the Senate are both adding funds to the investigation team in the Department of Justice.
House - $600,000
Felony Arrestee DNA - the Senate did not include funds to obtain a DNA sample on every felony arrestee; the House DID include these funds.
JUVENILES
The Youth Detention Center (YDC) - RESOLVED - Populations are down 70% since 1999 and down 365 from last year. The Senate and House both decreased the YDC budget by $2.5 million.
BRIDGES - RESOLVED - This forest fire fighting program designed around juvenile offenders was in a continuation review status and fortunately, it has been fully restored.
Juvenile Assessment Center - The juvenile assessment center in Fayetteville was eliminated in the Senate budget and restored in the House budget. This is a highly regarded program that can server as a model for other communities as the state moves towards raising the juvenile age to 18.
Samarkind Youth Detention Center - The Senate budget eliminated the Samarkand YDC and the House budget restored it at $3.5 mil.
Woodson Wilderness Camp - RESOLVED - a Western wilderness camp for youth - got bumped around in the budget as the JPS subcommittee voted to remove it and then the full appropriations committee voted to restore it. The Senate inlcuded Woodson Wilderness Camp in their budget
MENTAL HEALTH
Service Dollars Restored - $40 million that was taken from services in the mental health budget last year has been restored. The House only restores 18.8 million of this fund. These funds are extremely important to the communities and we hope the conference committee will be able to fund this at $40 million dollar level.
PRISONS/PROBATION
Adult Prison Population - The population, while still above capacity is significantly down from projected levels for June, 2010. This decrease yielded a $39.1 million reduction in the Senate budget and a $24.4 mil decrease in the House budget. This is the biggest total reduction amount in the JPS subcommittee budget and there is likely to be additional discussion on this item in conference.
Central Prison Hospital and Mental Health Facility and Women's Prison - RESOLVED - $11.1 million will be held in reserve for new positions for these facilities. They are scheduled to open in October.
DOC will be ADDING 781 NEW positions to staff these hospitals.
Clothing - RESOLVED - The clothing budget was reduced by $500,000 in both the Senate and House.
Inmate Medical Costs - Corrections hopes to save $20.5 million by moving to a medicaid fee schedule. Medical costs are one of the biggest budget items within corrections. Inmate medical costs are going to be given a throrough hearing on June 8. This amount is the same in both budgets, but discussion about this inmate medical costs will be ongoing.
Our Children's Place - This is an innovative program designed to keep infants and babies with their mothers. Since children of prisoners are six times as likely to be incarcerated as adults, new approaches to these children are essential. This program was cut 5% in the Senate budget and ELIMINATED in the House budget. House members expressed frustration that the building hadn't been restored and occupied, but no capital funds have been appropriated during the recession.
Prisoner Education - The prisoner education program was in a continuation review status and has been partially continued in both budgets. It is funded at a $25 million level in the House and $19.9 mil in the Senate. The budget was $32 million prior to the cuts. Services will no longer be available in jails or in federal facilities and no courses will be offered that are not GED or vocational in nature.
Probation Pay Grade Increase - Neither the House nor the Senate included the pay grade increase requested by the Governor. In a year in which NO state employees are receiving increases legislators were not inclined to single out one group for an increase.
Probation - The Senate requires the Division of Community Corrections to develop a pilot plan for the "privatization of probation services." This idea to allow fee-based supervision for low-risk offenders by private entities was roundly attacked in the House and removed from the budget.
Reduce Drug Testing Frequency - RESOLVED - Both the Senate and House reduced drug testing frequency from 15% to 10%.
SHERIFFS
Sheriff's Association will be awarded $150,000 in "pass through" dollars to enable them to train law enforcement on booking procedures that would identify undocmented immigrants. This is one of the few expansion items in the budget and should not be included.
Victim's Compensation Fund - This fund was reduced by $1.3 mil by both the Governor and the Senate to reflect ACTUAL expenditure levels. A JPS subcommittee vote took items from another program to restore this item in the House.
The Victim's Assistance Network did not take an additional 5% cut as was required of other "pass-through" agencies.
